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You absolutely, positively do not have to pay $450 for a fragrance. But sometimes—just sometimes—the smell of a perfume and the way it captivates your senses makes you want to splurge…or, at least, you’d be willing to. That’s the power of scent: It will transport you to a beautiful place, bring back memories, ignite emotions, connect you with lovers…and strangers.
Earlier this year, I found myself at “the Upper East Side’s Luxury Landmark,” better known as The Pierre New York. This swanky Manhattan hotel was an idyllic setting for a top-secret meeting about a luxurious new collection of $450 fragrances. The elevator led me to an expansive suite with views of Central Park, but my eyes locked with the sparkling Murano glass-inspired bottles (all individually placed on Verde Saint Denis marble pedestals) sprinkled across a coffee table like objets d’art.
One by one the fragrance inside each of the six Bottega Veneta bottles was misted onto blotter strips for a first sniff. Then, for 60 minutes straight, editors (myself included) audibly oohed and ahhed. As sunshine-y, sexy, elegant smells filled the air, memories were unlocked and shared instinctually. Colpo di Sole (a warm blend of orange flower, bergamot, and a splash of vanilla bourbon extract) and Acqua Sale (with sea salt and musk) were personal favorites, teleporting me to blissful days spent basking on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
This business meeting happened in May—and was quite the preview for fragrances that wouldn’t be available until this fall. (I would have worn Colpo di Sole and Acqua Sale on repeat all summer, but I digress.) But you don’t forget something that smells that good and makes you feel that great. That’s a real luxury: joy, even for a moment.
Much like fragrance, the word “luxury” is subjective. According to Merriam-Webster, a luxury is “something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary.” It’s fair to say there are a lot of those “somethings” poised in the fragrance aisle that bring us a lot of pleasure—and comfort. (A warm, cozy, vanilla fragrance, anyone? Best of Beauty-winning Matiere Premiere Vanilla Powder is our current favorite.)
Feelings aside, everything comes with a price. Even if the ink on a price tag becomes invisible because something smells damn-near divine, those digits are indicative of what’s on the inside (which is what really counts, right?): “Fragrance pricing is driven primarily by the quality and rarity of ingredients,” says Givaudan perfumer Christine Hassan, who just created Tory Burch’s newest fragrance, Sublime. “High-quality ingredients, notably natural extracts, are generally more expensive due to the complexity of sourcing and processing them, but synthetic materials can also be costly, depending on the cost of the starting raw material and amount of steps in the synthesis process.”
Topping the list of expensive notes, according to Hassan, are orris, or iris root (“due to the fact that the rhizome [or plant stem] is stored for a few years before being extracted,” says Hassan), rose oil (over a million flowers are needed to make one kilogram of oil), and oud (“due to the rarity and complex harvesting process”). Hassas adds, “The concentration of oils, brand prestige, and packaging also factor in.”
On Google, the word “luxury” gets searched alongside “perfume” thousands of times per month, and is up nearly 10% since last year, according to Spate, indicating a growing interest in the concept. When I search “luxury perfume” on my laptop, images of Dries Van Noten, Byredo, and Diptyque bottles appear at the top of my screen. Coincidentally, they are three brands that have been a key part of a massive wave of magnificent fragrances landing on our desks.
After spraying, sniffing, and wearing $27,325 of new fragrances (80 were tested in total), Allure editors had a proper meeting to discuss what is really worth investing in at this moment in time.
Dries Van Noten’s new Eaux de Parfum collection was love at first sight: “I cannot stress enough—like, truly—how obsessed I am with this bottle,” says associate director, special projects Hunter Lacey, referring to Bitter Splash, which is housed in a bottle that’s wrapped in a chinoiserie design. The juice makes just as much of a statement: “I would never imagine pomelo and leather playing so well together. The pomelo is a true nose-punch, but the leather softens and rounds it out,” explains Lacey. Camomille Satin, a unique combination of vanilla bean and chamomile, is another favorite from the collection. Says associate beauty editor Annie Blay-Tettey, “I love how this is sweet but also warm and spicy—and I can confidently say I haven’t smelled anything like it.”
Diptyque’s Les Essences de Diptyque is another feast for the eyes—and, of course, the nose. Each of the five fragrances is somehow familiar yet brand new. “The idea behind this collection was to delve into elements of nature that are typically without scent—coral, nacre, bark, water lily, and desert rose,” Laurence Semichon, global CEO of Diptyque, tells Allure, “and to translate their visual and tactile beauty into artistic olfactory masterpieces.” The Diptyque collection makes a strong first impression: Boxes painted in watercolor designs by artist Nigel Peake hint at what’s inside, as do the radiant glass vessels, engraved with designs mirroring Peake’s exterior illustrations. The bottle of Bois Corsé—a decadent blend of black coffee, sandalwood, and tonka bean—is embellished with fine lines that have been organically sketched to resemble the trunk of a tree. And it turns out the smell of “bark” is…“sexy,” as Lacey describes it. Social media manager Bianca Richards agrees: “It reminds me of espresso martinis and being out with my girlfriends.”
As an admirer of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies (or Nymphéas, in French) series of oil paintings, I was completely charmed by Lilyphéa, a celebration of the water lily plant. It’s a delightfully fresh blend, with cardamom, violet leaves, and vanilla. This floral scent will command your undivided attention much like a visit to Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, where Monet’s esteemed series is on display.
If you are after longevity, Infiniment Coty Paris—with 14 (!) different options, each infused with the brand’s technology to extend the wear of the perfume for a full day and then some— and Dior’s Espirt de Parfum (highly concentrated versions of five of the brand’s bestsellers) will carry you through the day, night, and beyond. “I tried Dior’s Rouge Trafalgar Esprit de Parfum and it lasted longer than 80% of the perfumes I own,” says features director Dianna Singh. “It was on my clothes, my hair…. I liked it, thank goodness.”
Commerce writer Jennifer Hussein had a similar experience with Byredo Desert Dawn. “My dirty laundry smells amazing because the fragrance has yet to totally disappear from my clothes,” she says. “This is one of my favorite fragrances at the moment.” That’s also true for most of the Allure team. Passers-by appreciate Desert Dawn’s unique combination of rose, cedarwood, musk…and carrots, too, says Singh, who has been “wearing this daily” and received compliments. “It’s ‘different’ but not so ‘different’ that it’s polarizing,” adds Singh. “For that reason, it’d make a great gift.”
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